Owl was my first word. Or at least that’s what my parents tell me. I am sure I was just making ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ noises and someone thought it sounded like ‘owl’. Either way, I’ve received many owl presents throughout the years. So it was very exciting when owls started showing up in the fashion, home and craft scenes a few years back. I thought it was a trend that would die out, but instead it seems to be stronger than ever. An Etsy search for owl gives you over 30,000 results. There is even an entire blog – a pretty amazing blog, actually – dedicated to owl design and art: My Owl Barn.
I was little worried about creating a owl graphic for Old World Hungary. It seemed relevant because it showed up in the craft of all three countries we visited, it was even on the Romanian postage stamp. But how would I compete with all the amazing owl designs that were already out there? Many other clothing lines already had owl graphic tees. How could I make one that was more special?
top row: Marc by Marc, Misha Lulu, POL Clothing
2nd row: , Kate Garey, Alice Melvin, Soft Gallery
3rd row: Delias, Lucky Wang, Babylon Baby
After our inspiration trip to the library, I had a photocopy of this one embroidery that I loved. Every which way I looked at it I kept seeing an owl in it. Not a entire owl, just an owl wing or eye, and all I could think was what a cute owl graphic it would make. Since it came to me instead of me creating it – I figured it was a sign that I had to go ahead and make the owl graphic. I hope you like it!
For the final graphic I put him in a little tree that was inspired by traditional wood carving of the region.
